March 8, 2020 Text: John 3:1-17
Dear Friends in Christ,
The book Born Free tells of an orphaned lioness adopted by Kenyan game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy. If they hadn’t cared for her, the cub they name Elsa would have died. Elsa grew into a strong, healthy, active adult. In a way, the Adamson’s gave her new birth as a huge house cat.
Elsa’s life depended on human care; she couldn’t survive in the wild. She never hunted or defended herself or interacted with other lions. Her new life so countered the actual life of a lion that she could never live free. The choice was either a zoo for Elsa or turning her loose to die – unless they gave Elsa another new birth and restored her true nature, her true “lioness.”
George and Joy taught Elsa to stalk and strike. They cut back on their time with her, weaned her from human dependence, and taught her to look to lions instead of humans for companionship. Finally, they restored the domestic cat to her true nature as a free, living lioness.
Somewhat like Elsa, we are trapped with natures unlike God created us to have. Corrupt from birth, we can’t live with God and we can’t escape the devil. Left alone, we would be even more helpless than the out-of-place Elsa. However, the Lord intervened, sending down his Son to give us rebirth, replacing our fallen state with the nature He intended at creation, and restoring us to a free and natural life as God’s children.
Christ came down from heaven so we can be . . .
“BORN FROM ABOVE”
What do you remember about your birth? Nothing, right? You had no choice in the matter. You were conceived by your parents, carried by your mother and brought out of the womb – all without your giving consent. We could not conceive ourselves. The mystery of our spiritual birth is every bit as profound. We had no more choice or opportunity to become God’s children than we did in becoming our parents’ children.
The reason we needed to be reborn from above is because we were born spiritually dead. This is what Jesus is telling Nicodemus. We would not think about God. We could not move toward God. We had no place in our hearts for God.
We had to be reborn from above because we could not raise ourselves up to God. As the psalmist says, we stood helpless and confused before this world’s troubles until “the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” came to our rescue. (Ps. 121:12) Like Abraham, we had no idea of a new and better place to live until Christ came and called us to new life. Like the Israelites dying of snakebites in the wilderness, we were doomed until God raised up His Son to die on the cross (vs. 14-15).
Being reborn from above means we live a new life. Martin Luther wrote about this in the Small Catechism Baptism section. “The Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
The Bible verse proof text is Romans 6:4 – “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Being reborn from above sets us on the path of eternal life with God. He loved us that He gave His only Son so that through believing in Him we would live.
Babies in maternity wards and neonatal units wear wristbands or ankle bands to identity who they are and which family they belong to. This is to make sure that no child goes home with the wrong family. The band lets us know as parents that that baby is ours.
Jesus taught the same thing to Nicodemus. Our baptisms are an outward sign of the home and family we belong to. Baptism is a sign that indicates, “This person belongs to the triune God.” Our heavenly Father sees the sign of Baptism on us and says, “You are mine.” We rejoice at the sign of our Baptism, because it gives us absolute assurance and confidence that we are truly children of God and that the day will come when He will take us Home with Him. Our Baptism assures us there will be no eternal mix-up. We will go to the home that is ours. We will go home to live with our true Father because you and I have been Born From Above.
Amen.